Now, I haven't worked around software development for a long time now, so maybe I'm wrong here, but doesn't beta mean pre-launch? Like, not fully tested, not ready to go live and replace whatever there used to be? Because at Yahoo, "beta" seems to mean "Without warning, we took away the site that you really like and that worked well and replaced it with a piece of dysfunctional garbage. But we know the new site doesn't work, so we're calling it 'beta."
This occurred twice in the past few weeks:
*Yahooligans, the kids' site which included a low-graphics, easy-to-use, quick-loading directory of vetted childrens' sites, went away without warning and was replaced with the "Yahoo Kids Beta." All the teachers at my kids' school are up in arms about it. The new site is all graphic, doesn't load quickly on older computers (deployed in many schools), and has replaced all front-page content with games and advertising. Now, the older site also had games and advertising, but it had SOME arguably educational links on the top page. More on the ways that the new Yahoo Kids site ignores the needs of teachers and parents and confuses young children in another post. The point here is that the old site went away without warning and was replaced with a slow clunky site that's labeled as a beta. If it's really a beta, why can't I get to the older site?
* Yahoo TV has been replaced by the "new" Yahoo TV Beta. There's a lot more content floating all over the main page. I'm sure there's a case to be made for it, and that the case is probably related to advertising revenue. So fine, whatever. I just want my TV listings. Unfortunately, they're not there. I've got the right service provider selected and all my favorites selected correctly, but the listings pages will not show more than the first few channels no matter whether I choose "all channels" or "favorite channels." The page is really long, like it's making space for the correctly sized grid, but...no grid. Images later.
The really irksome thing about the "betas?" There's no way to report a problem. If these were real betas, then the point would be for users to willingly test them and report issues. Instead, it's like we've been given completely buggy prelaunch software and been told to live with it. Well, I live with the Yahoo TV Beta problem by going on over to TV Guide. But the Yahoo Kids Beta is a bigger problem since there aren't a bunch of competitors that have engaging kid-safe content and a directory of thousands of kids' sites. I'd pay to host my OWN outdated version of the older Yahooligans directory just to have easy browsing access through the vetted information.
For Yahoo Maps and Yahoo Mail, something called a "Beta" has been available as an OPTION for several months. Presumably this is to work the kinks out and give people fair warning that the features they love are on the road to replacement. And the revamped main page was available as a "beta" for quite a while before everyone was required to switch over. Again, FAIR WARNING. But for TV and Kids, the change was thrust upon us without warning, without choice, and without recourse.
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